Jar of Dreams

Jar of Dreams is the newest release from Liz Flaherty. The publisher is Carina Press and the release date was January 14, 2013. From the back cover.~

For as long as she can remember, Lucy Dolan has been jotting down her hopes on slips of paper and saving them in a pickle jar—her jar of dreams. It was the first thing she saved when the beloved family diner went up in flames, and it's safely buckled in her beat-up minivan when she lands in Taft, Indiana, to start over. She rents a room and goes into business with her landlady, but then Gert's nephew comes charging in to "rescue" his aunt.

Boone Brennan will be damned if he'll let Lucy take advantage of Aunt Gert, who raised him and his sister. Believing that she's just passing through, he's deeply suspicious of her—despite the sparks that fly between them.

Just as Boone and Lucy are starting to open up to each other, a series of fires throws Lucy under suspicion. Boone wants to trust her and his feelings, but with the whole town against her, will he stay by her side? Or will Lucy move on and find another place to make her dreams come true?

I was lucky enough to get a review copy from NetGalley thanks to the publisher. I’d read another book by Liz Flaherty and really enjoyed it.

First I have to say how much I love the characters Flaherty writes. I loved Aunt Gert, Lucy, Sims and Boone as soon as we met them. Took me a bit longer to like Boone’s sister Kelly and their cousin Crockett, but I ended up really liking them too. I also loved the instant attraction between Lucy and Boone. Even though he didn’t want to have feelings for Lucy in the beginning, Boone couldn’t seem to stay away from her. I really loved Lucy and Boone together. They both had loss in their past, so could understand loneliness.

The series of fires that happen seem to follow Lucy around. While I knew Lucy had nothing to do with the fires, it looked very suspicious to everyone else in town. I will say I figured out who was starting the fires before it was revealed, and I understood why this person started the fires, but was still hoping I was wrong in my guess. I didn’t guess the reason behind the fires, but could see the reasoning once it was explained.

I think part of the reason I took longer to warm up to Kelly was because she was really pretty ugly to Lucy in the beginning, as well as the rest of her family. I could see how much she really loved her family, so I gave her a pass for some of her attitude. She probably changed the most in this book and I really hope we get her story at some point in the future.

Jar of Dreams was a very enjoyable story. The characters are some I’d love to visit with again in the future. I really hope we get more books set in Taft, Indiana from Liz Flaherty.

One More Summer

One More Summer is the newest release from Liz Flaherty and Carina Press. From the author’s website.~

Grace has taken care of her widowed father her entire adult life and the ornery old goat has finally died. She has no job, no skills and very little money, and has heard her father's prediction that no decent man would ever want her so often she accepts it as fact.


But she does have a big old house on Lawyers Row in Peacock, Tennessee. She opens a rooming house and quickly gathers a motley crew of tenants: Promise, Grace's best friend since kindergarten, who's fighting cancer; Maxie, an aging soap opera actress who hasn't lost her flair for the dramatic; Jonah, a sweet, gullible old man with a crush on Maxie.


And Dillon, Grace's brother's best friend, who stood her up on the night of her senior prom and has regretted it ever since. Dillon rents Grace's guest house for the summer and hopes to make up for lost time and past hurts—but first, he'll have to convince Grace that she's worth loving...


This is the first book I’ve read by Liz Flaherty and I was able to get an early copy of One More Summer from NetGalley. I really liked the characters from this book. I especially loved Grace and her best friend Promise. They each would do anything for the other, including keeping secrets and protecting one another. I liked Grace’s siblings Steven and Faith as well, and loved seeing the siblings grow closer as the book progressed. Dillon was a bit of a surprise to me, but I soon saw he only wanted to protect and get to know Grace as an adult.


One More Summer threw out some major surprises as the love story between Grace and Dillon progressed. I’ll admit one secret Grace had been keeping didn’t totally shock me, but still surprised me that she finally opened up and shared her secret. Grace’s father was such a total jerk with his youngest child that she has never really trusted anyone but Promise with her true feelings, not even her brother and sister. Dillon has a few secrets of his own from his past that make it hard for Grace to believe he really loves her.


With each secret that is brought to light, Grace becomes a much stronger woman. Grace was always strong, but her new strength comes from finally accepting help and love from all her family and friends. Her strength is tested as it quickly becomes apparent that Promise has little chance of surviving her cancer.


One More Summer was Grace’s story from start to finish. I thought it was a good story, but did think she had a bit more on her than any one person should ever have to deal with. Overall, I liked the author’s writing style and will look for other books from her in the future. One More Summer is set for release from Carina Press on January 2, 2012.